AFP general abandons child

A middle-aged woman went to my office to complain about the father of her 9-year-old daughter, a general in the Armed Forces.

The mother is seeking financial support from this high-ranking military officer who has totally abandoned the little girl to her care.

The mother is out of work since she suffered a stroke a few months ago. Her child has stopped going to school and is now under the care of her poor and sick grandmother.

According to the mother of the child, she met the general several years ago when he was still a colonel.

She said she knew all along that he is a married man but she fell in love with him because of his sweet tongue.

At first, everything was okay because the military officer religiously supported the child. Things changed when he was promoted to general a few years ago.

According to the woman, the general not only failed to give financial support during the past few years but he refuses to see his little girl who misses him a lot.

This general is a prime example of a heartless individual. I pity the little girl for having a ruthless dad.

“Persons of interest” at BOC
Now that Bureau of Customs (BOC) Commissioner Ruffy Biazon have started instituting reforms to meet their collection target by reshuffling his collectors and other non-performing officials, its high time he talks to several “ persons of interest”.

As one BOC old timer puts it, “almost every player in the pier has his way of making lots of money but the government always gets the least of it”.

My friend, a retired BOC official, last week said that even legitimate importers should be scrutinized.

One good example is rice importation. Rice importers were given permits by the National Food Authority (NFA) after winning it from a bidding.

According to NFA records, a certain David Banggayan was one of the two persons allowed to import rice from Southeast Asian countries.

A source within the rice trading business said Banggayan may or may not know it but his broker allegedly always underdeclares the amount of the rice shipment to avoid paying millions of pesos in taxes.

The same applies to oil importers, according to Fernando Martinez, the president of independent oil players.

Martinez refused to divulged their names but he said that some major oil companies have under declared the quantity of their imports for decades now.

Another interesting person the bureau might want to talk to is Efren Yap, owner of the Monaco Yarn.

My source said Yap may be able to give the bureau insights on the bonded warehouse operations since most of his cargoes land in the said facilities.

Finally, Biazon may also want to check some BOC officials whose part time job is being a broker. But that’s another topic.